For the past month, we have been talking about Praying and Fasting. Many of us can feel led to go on fast or we attend worship assemblies that participate in corporate fasting. At the end of the day we have a choice to answer the call to pray and fast. When God is requiring something from us, our response to the call is what is important. The key principle that is in play here is obedience.
I want to encourage you to pick up the phone and answer the call. When we hear praying and fasting at first hand, we instantly get nervous and start to think of the things we cannot do rather than it being an opportunity to do something for God. Once I started thinking about praying and fasting as opportunity and a privilege, I approached praying and fasting with a better attitude.
It is not just about abstaining from food and praying, but it is the obedience to the call. If you are a believer, then you will get the call to pray and fast. Matthew 6:16, it starts out with, “When you fast”, that means that in your walk with God, you will fast and it will be unto the Lord. God requires our obedience and it is a conscious decision that we must make.
We must remember the fast that God has chosen for us. It is not just abstaining from food, but it is about reaching out to others. I also approached praying and fasting from Isaiah 58. Our fasting and praying helps others and we should be active in helping God’s people. This is God’s Will for us. Look at the beauty of fasting and praying. It is about others, and not ourselves. There is a blessing in choosing to fast and pray.
Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily, And your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Isaiah 58:6-8
